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Hello All! I'm Chinese who just started learning Chinese

Introduce Yourself 自我介绍
#1

大家好! 我是 Amy. I’m a 3rd generation of Chinese immigrant who doesn’t speak Chinese. I just started learning 6 weeks ago. I’ve lived in a few places around the world but currently live in London.

I decided to learn Mandarin Chinese because I started to find out, read and listen more about Chinese ancient history and culture and became interested in it in the last year or so. Also sometimes I feel a bit silly for being Chinese and not being able to speak the language.

I have been using Skritter and Hello Chinese apps everyday for the last 6 weeks to supplement my 2 hours a week Chinese classes and now adding Chinesepod to the mix. I listen to it when I walk to the station, then do half an hour of Skritter on the tube and about 15 mins of speaking exercises after work by mimicking dialogues from Chinesepod, recording myself then listen to the recording to try and spot my mistakes.

My short term goal is to be able to write and read around 300 characters by the end of the year (I’m at 195 characters at the moment) and read level one graded reader books by early next year (Anyone has any recommendation for good ones that use traditional characters?). My medium term goal is to hopefully be in a comfortable intermediate level in 2 years time and not to lose motivation before then!

I’m not confident enough to practice speaking with strangers even though I know it is very important. I had the same problem when I learned English but I feel it is much worse with Chinese as people often assume that I already speak the language. Luckily my mum speaks Mandarin fairly well even though we don’t live in the same country and I have an aunty in China so they will have to do as language partners for now.

Sorry for the lengthy intro. Hoping to interact with more of you in the future :smiley:

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#2

你好Amy,

Just stay consistent and you will be fine. Best bet is not to overdo it, that way you don’t burn out. Your goals are reasonable and you seem to know what your doing so as long as you stay on track you should be fine. But really, start saying things to people. Most of them will be really nice about it.

加油！

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#3

謝謝你 Nabeshima! I saw your other posts on duchinese app and making your own seal stone. Very resourceful and interesting!

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#4

Hi Amy, I’ve been learning for about 10 months, and still have so far to go. From my current perspective, my advice is to focus on listening more than anything else - especially speaking. There’s no point being able to say something if you can’t understand the response. In the beginning i got far too caught up in speaking and writing, then when I visited China I could not understand a single thing.

So yeah, just a little perspective from someone also at the beginning of this journey :slightly_smiling_face:

Justin

#5

Thanks, glad you found it interesting, if you have Instagram follow me @knowledgemagnetic7 , I’ll be posting similar stuff on there. Peace.

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#6

Hi Justin,

Thank you so much for your tip. That’s actually something I haven’t really thought about, now thinking about it I realise people on the street probably speak faster and less clear than Chinesepod dialogues. I try to watch TV series and such when I have free time, sometimes I watch them or listen while doing something else many times and try to pick out any words that sounds familiar and try to understand them in context. Some episodes because I watch them so many times I start to understand longer sentences. Once I move to higher level and know more grammars and vocabularies I will start listening to radio or podcasts programs. Great tip! :smiley:

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#7

hello i am learning chinese language intermidate level

#8

abbasihannan108@yahoo.com this is my facebook id if here is not possible for you so you can try to contact by this facebook id

#9

Hello Amy, the most important thing to keep in mind is consistency !

I managed to first learn chinese by using an online 365 days course : everyday I got a new video to watch for about 20min then review the new + old characters and then store the new ones in ANKI app for later review. The main goal of this course was to teach me HSK4 characters in one year, and it was fairly easy even if I had to go to work everyday.

Right now I’m aiming at preparing HSK5 exam (and then quit my job so I can get back to university in order to prepare a “chinese teacher” degree) based on the same routine I still have right now :

  • getting up at 6:00 then rushing my way to the shower
  • 6:30 to 7:15 : reviewing thanks to ANKI
  • 12:00 to 13:00 : 10/15min lunch then reading full chinese books (西游记, no pinyin, no translation)
  • 20:00 to 21:00 : once my daughter’s asleep, watching easy to understand chinese videos on youtube and then switch to CGTN (but I still need french subtitles when it comes to TV :cry: )
  • every two sundays, when my wife’s at work I use skype to “teach” French in chinese to a taiwanese frend of mine. Started doing this only few months ago. :sweat_smile:

My medium/long term goal is to be able to watch TV without relying on subtitles.

Hope my dayly routine could inspire you and keep you motivated :yum:

PS : Sorry for my mistakes but I ain’t a native english speaker :blush:

3 Likes
#10

Hello Sébastien,

I love reading about other people’s routines, experiences and tips. They are so helpful and a good way to keep me motivated! I can’t wait for the day I can read books and watch TV and movies without subtitles :sweat:

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#11

Hey @708457181 I am curious… what decks are you using with Anki? Are you making your own decks?

#12

Hey Purrfecdizzo :grinning:

I didn’t manage to find good decks in my mother language so I started creating my own ones … and now I find it more useful than premade ones.

I’m creating my own decks so I have to :

  1. look for the words or expressions meaning
  2. find related pictures to help me memorize
  3. find good examples related

On the other hand the only non tailor made deck I keep using is the one labeled “SpoonFed” with a huge load of audio, I use this one only to test/check listening comprehension. :star_struck:

I close my eyes, listen to the audio and repeat it if necessary until I almost understand everything and got the meaning of the sentence, then read the translation for unknown words.

Unknown words are then placed in the correct deck with example(s), picture and meaning. :wink:

Hope it’ll help ya :blush:

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#13

Thanks,

I have been using the same decks since 2012. :slight_smile:

1 Like